Techmeetup Glasgow: September 2013

This Wednesday sees the continuation of Techmeetup in Glasgow. Some cracking talks this month :

Luke Dicken: Introducing The International Game Developers Association

With a history spanning over twenty years, and thousands of members around the world, the International Game Developers Association has been a uniting force, bringing together people from all disciplines interested in, or actively pursuing game development. In this talk, Luke Dicken, the first director of the organisation to ever be elected from outside of North America, will explain the mission of the IGDA, why it matters and why it is of relevance to the broader tech sector as well.

Keith Harrison: Why Humans use F#

The talk will show how users with a math background can use F# to build sophisticated solutions. I will cover closures, higher order functions and explain how F# takes advantage of the .NET Framework. 

Thanks to our sponsors Neo, SkyScanner and Glasgow University for making the event possible.

Luke has given some great talks before and always delivers a lively presentation. He can be found on Twitter as @luked or at his site http://lukedicken.com.

Not too familiar with F#, so will be interesting to hear what it has to offer.

As per usual things kick off from half 6 at

5th Floor
School of Computing
18 Lilybank Gardens
G12 8QQ
by Hillhead Underground
Glasgow Westend

Afterwards the usual post event drinks at the newly refurbished Brel.

Approved: STEM Ambassador

My criminal background check (Disclosure Scotland) confirmed that I’ve never been charged or convicted of a crime and I am now a fully approved STEM Ambassador. Next steps are to update my Science Connects profile, contact a few local schools in Stirling and Glasgow about setting up Code Clubs.

At a push I should manage to run 2 clubs at once but I will probably start with 1 and gauge things from there. My hope is to inspire the next generation of software engineers and promote the vast number of career opportunities within IT.

Techmeetup Glasgow – Wednesday 24th April

I will be attending next week’s Techmeetup in Glasgow. This month rather than 2 speakers the event will play host to an evening of lightning talks. I had thought about doing a talk on STEM ambassadors but I’ve been busy moving jobs and missed last month’s induction session(a talk for another day it seems) . Pizza and beer will be provided as always from the sponsors. After talk discussions and drinks in Brel till late are likely to follow if you can’t make the main event.

More details can be found in open tech calendar – http://opentechcalendar.co.uk/index.php/event/268

Monthly Developer Hangout – Hackdays and Codecamps

Next Thursday (25th) I will be attending the monthly Developer Hangout on Google+. This month’s discussion topic is on hackdays and codecamps; who benefits from them and what do they involve?

Should be an interesting discussion. Admittedly I’ve yet to manage to attend a hackday for various reasons, although I am keen to get along to one. I will be bringing up the potential benefits as experimenting with new technologies and methods that I don’t have opportunities to try in my daily development role that could benefit my code.

Developer Hangout